As usual, almost without effort I woke up at 3am. and my body aching all over with my heavy like ready to burst inside. Got up took care of the toilet and stepped and had a good long cold drink of orange juice and stepped outside with the cat tailing me to have a smoke and breath in the cool breath of fresh air. Life is a paradigm of paradoxes and nothing exist without its opposite like life and death, good and evil, black and white the cosmic mandala of Yin and Yang of the Taoist Way. Within each side is the seed of the other that lies in the center of both, a black dot in the white and vice versa. Too look at one without being conscious of the other is simply put the lack of awareness that causes imbalance within and without. Physical as well as mental imbalance is the result forgetting this Universal Principle of Causality. That which is high will have its low and good and bad walks hand in hand we call left and right, the brain is split into two hemisphere of the same goop or the grey matter. To be aware of this fact that with are governed by a dual thinking mind is crucial for us to understand who we truly are. Do we create the world or the world is creating us, is all that we see and experience truly our own collective creation or is it us that is being created to become a part and parcel of this existence we call life or living. Are we what we think we are as science can proof and religion can ascertain, a sack of flesh bones and moving about triggered by sophisticated electromagnetic resonance that permeates the universe we call the infinite consciousness,God, Allah, Shiva and so on, our Higher Self. the Mind that dictates what is right and what is wrong for every individual at their level of perception and interest; The Witness the one who stands on the fringe and look within and without with equal fascination and distress.
For every step I take forward I would slide back two like I can never become free from this cycle of life and death. I realize I am not the mind nor the physical body and that I am at the mercy and grace of my Maker, my Lord, my Master. It is a feeling deep and personal that I would call having faith instead of fear and a state of humility and being humble in realizing that, you are One. This is to me the awareness of those on the road to serve as the Buddhist calls Bodhisattvas, they who refuse to give up the 'Life' till there is none in this world that cry out in pain and suffering. Most famous of these is the Bodhisattva Mahasatva Avalokiteshvara, the Boddhisattve of infinite Compassion and Mercy or more popularly known in Chinese as Kuan Yin and the Japanese as Kanon Daibosatsu. He/She who has a thousand arms holding all kinds of remedies for those in need of healing and who hears the call for help from every corner where sentient beings exist. Some comes as Gurus, Teachers, Carpenters and fishermen and so forth but each enlightened one has his or her gift to offer especially to help ease the suffering of this cycle of life, death and rebirth. Bodhiisattvas are those who from past lives of eons till this date have vowed never to becom a fully and completely enlightened Buddha and leave this realm of existence forever, like what Shakyamuni the Historical Buddha did at His Pari Nirvana, the End of no beginning. I took this vow when I was practicing at the Zen Buddhist Monastery in Sausalito, Marin County, Californiia, a place called Green Gulch Farm or the Green Dragon Zen Center. Every full moon all of us would perform the ceremony to remind ourselves of these vows. I find I am more tied to it as I grow older and perhaps a little more matured, see the seriousness having made this spiritual commitment, its consequences and ramifications. Am I fulfilling my obligations towards serving humanity if not all sentient beings as promise or am I just merely existing without any sense of commitment towards my spiritual calling. What is the Flip side of a Bodhisattva?
We all walk alongside our shadow which C.Jung called our "Darker side - the Shadow." The Bodhisattva is both the Light and the Shadow walking this earth as one balanced form of energy that enlightens the rest of the planet by his very existence as one who had approached Buddhahood or absolute and complete annihilation of so called 'I' in our consciousness. I have realized that i am no more than a piece of dust in the wind of cosmic consciousness and I realize too that I am nore further from my Lord than the jugular vein to my throat and only Allah exist, He Is One; One. Realizing this that I am who I am in my choice of path in this life, I will continue walking with my shadow and resort to it in my times of dire need in order to serve my fellow seekers of truth. So what would be the negative energy of the Boddhisattva Avalokiteshvara or the Goddes of Mercy, Kuan Yin? or what is the ugly side of the Man, the Shadow, the Evil, the Cruel, the Merciless, Murderous; the thousand arms of weapons of chaos, inflicting Pain and Suffering - The Super Ego. The Dark side in all of us is there and will always be there for as long as we are breathing in and out; stop breathing and we will discover a part of the truth of who we truly are. Having made these far out realizations about yourself what next? How do we use what we have realized or learned from our personal journey. Teach! Make them read! If you have a message to share, a story to tell or an experience worth relating, share! The Devine has given us the Internet to share. It does not matter if they read or they don't, not everyone is on the same wavelength, synchronicity or vibration, not everyone is on the same page; audiences is the least of worries. The message and not the messenger or the container that is of value and getting it across to those who might have interest for the same answers might be worth the effort; this is how I serve as a Boddhisattva thus with hope that I am fulfilling my vows that...
Beings are numberless, I vow to Awaken with Them.
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them
The Dharma Gates are boundless, I vow to enter Them.
The Buddha's way is Unsurpassable, I vow to Attain It.
The discoveries Science have made of Human condition is good for the healing of the mind and body, the alignment and a good balance of all the elemental forces of what holds us together, science is for the survival of the fittest, dog eat dog but not the healing of the inner man the souls, the Witness, the watcher call it what you may; the Shadow. Spirituality helps to ease the burden of Ignorance that man is endure in his life, spirituality gives life to science. They are the flip side of our Collective Nature or as Jung put it, our Collective Consciousness; heads or tails?
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